BABE RUTH BASEBALL: No. Burlington 14s knock out Hamilton

HAMILTON — In an era of batters working counts to try and build up pitch counts, the Northern Burlington 14-year-old Babe Ruth All Stars are a refreshing throwback.

Attack, attack, attack. That attitude resulted in a 10-8 elimination bracket win for NB over Hamilton at Switlik Park Sunday, which ended Hamilton’s stay in the Southern New Jersey State Tournament.

Northern comes back to play Waretown at 8:30 tonight after Waretown fell to Washington Township in Saturday night’s late game in the winner’s bracket semifinals.

“I think there are two teams here that really bang the ball pretty heavy and hit the long ball a lot, and that’s us and Nottingham,” Northern coach Dan Berg said. “I can’t change them, I’m not going to. They’ve been this way since they were eight years old.

“We go up to hack, that’s how it is. We don’t play a lot of small ball, we go up to hack. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t, today it worked out.”

It sure did, as Northern clubbed 12 hits and built an 8-0 lead after four innings before withstanding a furious Hamilton rally. The hosts scored four in the fifth to make it 8-4. NB answered with two in the sixth, Hamilton got one back in the bottom of the sixth and scored three in eighth.

After Ryan Sparks’ two-run single made it 10-8, Hamilton put runners on first and third with two outs before relieve Cody Schroeder got Ray Anderson on a fielder’s choice to end it.

“You gotta give the kids credit for coming back,” Hamilton manager Greg Beyer said. “You’re down 8-0, you get the go-ahead run at home plate in the last inning. I really thought we had a good shot. You have Jake (Beyer) and Ryan (Mostrangeli) and the top of order coming up.”

Despite facing a near collapse, Beck didn’t feel as if his team “held on”, so to speak.

“I wouldn’t consider anything holding on in the state tournament, these are all quality teams,” he said. “You can never have enough runs. Some of the best teams in the states are getting beaten by singles dropping in. You gotta score runs and if you can get some quality pitching and some timely defense you can win games.”

Northern took a 2-0 lead in the first on Zach Wright’s two-run single. A three-run homer by Ben Jones highlighted a five-run third for NB, and in the fourth Ryan Tobin doubled and scored on an error to make it 8-0.

In the fifth, Beyer led off with a single but got thrown out trying to steal when he got confused on a sign. That proved costly as three walks, an error and two hits, including Angelo Sanger’s two-run single, cut it to 8-4.

Paul Meduri’s RBI single in the sixth helped give NB a bigger cushion at 10-4. Hamilton then put up a late rally but Schroeder managed to save it in relief of Mike Wainwright.

“Mike pitched solid,” Berg said. “Mike did a real nice job and Cody came in to close it up. That was nice.

“What helped us out is we came out and set the tone early. Our leadoff hitter (Josh Berg) was clutch today, he hit the ball very well. That’s what it takes, then you make the plays at the end and you get the job done.”

In yesterday’s first game, Gibbsboro-Voorhees beat Millville and will play Mount Laurel at 6 p.m. tonight. Both of tonight’s winners play Tuesday prior to the Nottingham-Washington Township winner’s bracket final game.